NEW YORK – A hot new bombshell has entered the villa New York Fashion Week runway.
“Love Island USA” Season 7 star Olandria Carthen made her fashion week modeling debut at the Sergio Hudson show Friday – with her costar and romantic partner, Nicolas Vansteenberghe, on hand to cheer her on in the front row.
For the Sept. 12 show, Carthen was one of the early models on the runway, with the self-proclaimed “Bama Barbie” looking every bit doll-like in a voluminous brown animal-print blouse, black micro shorts and black lace up heels. The look was completed with a black oversized belt and statement gold earrings.
As Carthen, 27, made her way down the runway, Vansteenberghe pulled out his phone to record her, beaming with pride and smiling as the crowd applauded while she made her way around the room. Vansteenberghe, 24, opted for a chic all-black ensemble for his front row jaunt in a turtleneck paired with a matching jacket and tuxedo pants.
Fellow “Love Island USA” star Serena Page, who made history in Season 6 with boyfriend Kordell Beckham as the first Black couple to win the show, sat next to Vansteenberghe and excitedly recorded as Carthen strutted by.
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Getting the “Love Island” cast member to walk in the show was a major moment, designer Sergio Hudson told USA TODAY backstage after the show.
Carthen had been spotted wearing Hudson’s designs to press interviews, the US Open and more in the weeks since the reality dating competition show wrapped this summer.
“I didn’t even know about the show (‘Love Island USA’),” Hudson says. “When she started wearing the clothes, and I started seeing the response … I went and looked at it, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ She was just an amazing, dynamic girl. And I wanted to give Gen Z something to look to, and I hope they enjoyed it, because she’s a sweet girl.”
Hudson, who grew up in South Carolina, connected with Carthen being from Alabama and knew he had to include her in the show.
“We’re both from the South, and she’s a beautiful girl, inside and out,” Hudson says. “And I normally don’t put non-models in the show, but she’s inspiring. And I felt like I really wanted to connect to that age group, because that’s my godkids. So that was the reason why we did it, and she looked beautiful.”
Carthen, who originally joined “Love Island” as a sales professional in the elevator industry, made it clear that making it to the top floor of the modeling world was a dream of hers.
Carthen coupled up with Vansteenberge in the final weeks of the show, after his previous partner Cierra left due to a racism scandal, and the internet went wild over the newly boo-ed duo, dubbed “Nicolandria” by fervent fans. The couple have been making the rounds during NYFW, sitting front row at Off-White earlier in the day, and Carthen popping up at Theophilio the night prior.
Mary J. Blige, Natasha Lyonne, ‘RHOA’ alum Kandi Burruss sit front row at Sergio Hudson NYFW show
Mary J. Blige brought the star power to a front row that included actress Natasha Lyonne, singer and “Real Housewives of Atlanta” alum Kandi Burruss, “The Morning Show” star Karen Pittman and more.
Blige breezed past security and up into the show, where every photographer in the room stopped to snap a photo. For the occasion, she rocked a long-sleeve, white cargo mini dress with gold accessories: a large belt, a small purse and her signature knee-high boots.
Lyonne chatted with Tony-winning producer Jordan Roth, celebrity stylist June Ambrose and designer/actor Waris Ahluwalia.
The spring/summer 2026 collection returned to familiar design territory for Hudson: the glam of the ’80s.
“That’s my happy place,” says Hudson, who admitted “it was a hard collection to do.” But “whenever I’m down and out, I just end up designing really sexy ’80s clothes that probably a Prince girl would wear in a video.”
Vibrant neon colors, animal print, pops of Liberace gold and slinky sequins moved down the runway, featuring slightly less pieces than fans have historically seen from Hudson. The impact of the Trump administration’s tariffs is partly to blame.
“I have seven looks that are stuck in India right now because the embroidery is done in India. All the clothes are made here, but they have those special (artisans) in India that know how to do all these beautiful embroidery that we don’t have that workforce here anymore in the United States. So if you want something embroidered, you have to get it done in India or somewhere in that part of the world,” Hudson says. “And they put all these tariffs on them, and my clothes got stuck.”